Episode 51 – Victory over the Virus Part 4

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script: (Bible quotes from the New International Version and others)

Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.

Psalm 79, verse 9, New International Version

I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols

Isaiah, Chapter 42, verse 8, New Living Translation

Your right hand, O LORD, wins glory because it is strong. Your right hand, O LORD, smashes your enemies.

Exodus, Chapter 15, verse 6, God’s Word Translation

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VK: Good Morning. I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author and founder of Crystal Sea Books. As we had announced in a previous episode we had planned to start a new series on Anchored by Truth to focus on one of the strongest lines of evidence for the Bible’s inspiration: fulfilled prophecy. But, as important as that topic is, given all that’s going on in our community and nation right now we thought that we should set that aside for a moment. Instead we wanted to spend some time meditating on what the Bible says to us about how we as a nation, a community, and as individuals can achieve victory over the virus. RD, maybe we should do a quick review of what we learned in our first three episodes in this series?

RD: I think that’s a great idea. In our first episode in this Victory over the Virus episode we saw that God promises in a number of different places in the Bible that He will never leave us or forsake us. He promises to always be with us no matter what we’re going through. In our second episode we saw that, in addition to just guaranteeing us His presence, God also promises to give us what we need in trying times and we focused on three super-important qualities that we all need: wisdom, strength, and contentment. And in our third episode we took a look at the attributes of God that guarantee us that the promises God made were intended just as much for us, in this day and time, as they were for the very first audience that ever heard those promises.

VK: And that last point is so important. It’s one thing to believe that God made promises to the people who originally heard Jesus speak or who heard one of the Old Testament prophets say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” But how would promises given over 2,000 years ago have any meaning to us today unless we could be sure that those promise carry forward throughout time. Fortunately, because God is eternal and unchanging, we can be assured that the promises He made to His people in Biblical times are still fully applicable to us today. Also, just as a reminder for anyone who wasn’t able to join us for those earlier episodes they are now available by podcast through all major podcast apps. Just look for the Victory over the Virus episodes.

RD: Great point. Listeners should also know that we routinely post written script notes along with the podcast audio so anyone who would like to review the Bible quotes and scripture references can just get the script notes rather than having to write things down as they’re listening.

VK: Right. So what’s on the table for today to continue helping people understand why Victory over the Virus is not only possible for Christians – but certain?

RD: Well, we’re going to tackle a topic that does not get a lot of attention today but which I think is essential for Christians to contemplate as they deal with difficult times like the one we’re having now. I want to talk about God’s glory and specifically about the fact that God will very often intercede in human events and world events for the purpose of calling attention to his glory.

VK: Yikes. I sense some head scratching and mind stretching moments ahead. Well, that’s alright. So to get us into the mood to think about how great God really is let’s listen to part one of Crystal Seas’ upcoming audio project, The Genesis Saga. This part describes the 7 amazing days in which God made the world and established the time periods that would forever mark our lives.

---- THE GENESIS SAGA, PART I – SEVEN DAYS OF WONDER

VK: You know when you listen to that description of creation and let your mind just focus on God for a minute you are able to step back from our current situation for a while. The biggest thing I remember whenever I hear that piece is that our God really is an awesome God.

RD: He really is. And that’s one of the reason I want to spend some time today thinking about God’s glory and particularly His concern for His own glory.

VK: That’s something we almost never think about. God is a personal being. He’s obviously a personal being like no other but He is a personal being. That means that He has His own thoughts, plans, intentions, and concerns.

RD: Right. Of course, God’s plans and concerns are quite different from our own. God’s plans always come to fruition. And God is never concerned in the way that human beings are in the sense that He gets worried or anxious. God is never worried or anxious. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have priorities, things that are important to Him. And one of those priorities is His own glory.

VK: When you first say that it can sound like God is egotistical.

RD: For a human being to be concerned about his or her glory it would be egotistical. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that we have a proper understanding of the nature of God. It’s been said that every heresy begins with a misunderstanding of the nature of God. God is a being unlike any other. He alone is self-existent. He possesses the power of being, of life, unto and by himself. He needs nothing from anything or anyone. He is independent, non-contingent, and non-derived. Humans by contrast are dependent, contingent, and derived. We depend on air, water, food, and sunlight just to name a few things. Not only is God self-existent, He is also all powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. But even saying those things is only the beginning of what we can say about God.

VK: Right. Saying God is all powerful and all-knowing is a way of talking about what God can do. But God is so much more. He is perfect in every way: perfect in goodness, perfect in holiness, perfect in beauty and one we don’t think about very much – perfect in glory.

RD: Exactly. God is perfect in glory. Perfect. And because God is perfect in His glory He will not share His glory with anyone or anything else. That’s what we heard in our second scripture today from Isaiah. “I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

VK: Well, Isaiah wrote about 700 years before Jesus was born so he wrote during the period when the Hebrews were frequently were seduced into idol worship, especially of the false pagan gods of the surrounding nations.

RD: Yes. And idolatry became such a problem that God eventually allowed the Jews to be conquered by the Babylonians and go into a foreign captivity for 70 years. That was a graphic illustration of how seriously God views idol worship. But back to the basic point. God is perfect in every way, so God’s concern for His glory is perfectly right and just. But more than that, God’s concern for His glory is actually very good news for Christians.

VK: In what way?

RD: Because God considers anyone who has placed their trust in Jesus alone for salvation as part of His family. Romans 8:16 and 17 says that “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” That means that when God is concerned for the maintenance of His glory He is also concerned with His children. In other words, it reinforces God’s concern for us. Once we entered God’s kingdom what He does for His kingdom He does for us. That’s really good news. God will do things for us completely outside of any merit that we might think that we possess.

VK: What you’re saying is that God looks at anyone who has accepted Christ as their savior through the lens of Christ. That means that God is as concerned with what happens to us just as much as He would be concerned for what happened to Jesus. Wow, that becomes a really powerful thought. But now tell us why all this is so important when it comes to us trying to deal with difficult situations like this virus.

RD: Because at times like this people often find themselves caught in a sea of uncertainty. Now, of course, many people will turn to God in prayer for help with the uncertainty or for the provision of essential needs.

VK: And they should turn to God for needs. After all Philippians 4:19 says that God will meet all our needs through Christ.

RD: Yes, it does. But let’s look at see exactly how that verse is phrased. I’m quoting now from the New International Version. “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” God says that He meets our need according to glory found in Christ Jesus. A famous Biblical commentator from the 19th century, Albert Barnes, says that the use of the word “glory” in this verse connects the idea that whatever God does is done in a way worthy of himself so as to illustrate his own perfections. So this verse is another illustration of the principle that often God will do amazing things for His people as a way of demonstrating His glory.

Or let’s put it a little differently. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, when people go to God in prayer, they’re praying for something they need or want. And that’s fine because God encourages us in 1 Peter 5:7 to cast our cares upon him. But even when we do that we are going to be aware that we are going to God with a focus on us. But let’s go back to Philippians 4:19. The Apostle Paul is telling us that God will supply our needs at least in part as way of demonstrating His glory, His profound perfection.

VK: I see where you’re going with all this. You’re saying that when we go to God in prayer we don’t have to go to him solely based on our needs, but we can turn to Him because, in a certain sense, He has chosen to link His care for us to His glory – to the riches He possesses just by virtue of the fact that He is who He is. He is God and He is perfect in every way.

RD: Yes. Let’s go back to our first scripture for a second. The Psalmist is praying for help. But notice how he prays. “Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake …” In other words, the Psalmist asks the God give him deliverance and forgiveness for the sake of God’s name which is another way of saying for God’s glory. In other words, the Psalmist isn’t just grounding his prayer in the human side of the transaction. He is also reminding God that providing him the required help will enhance God’s glory, or at least the human recognition of God’s glory. Obviously, as a perfect being, God’s glory can’t really be increased.

VK: But we, as human beings, can grow in our recognition of that glory. So, part of the point you’re making is that, in uncertain times, when we feel uncertain about a lot of things, we can always ground our prayers in the absolutely certain character of God himself. God knows our needs before we present them. But when we link our needs to God’s own character He knows that if and when He provides for us that we will know that our answer came from God. It’s a little like a father giving money to his teen-age daughter and telling her to take her little sister to the ice cream shop and get a treat for themselves. If you asked the little sister who to thank for the ice cream she might say the person who made her the sundae. But the older sister knows that their real benefactor was their father.

RD: Exactly. And here’s something that’s a bit of a mystery but that I think about a lot. God did a lot of things in the Bible for His people but it was very common for God to act primarily through one person. James reminds us in his book that Elijah was just one man but Elijah prayed that it wouldn’t rain for three years in Israel and it didn’t. One person’s prayers can make a difference. And while I don’t believe there are any magical prayer formulas I do believe that God is concerned with the content of our prayers and particularly our earnestness. Remember James talks about fervent prayer. Well, in uncertain times, while we may know that we need certain things desperately, are we always prepared to honor God properly if we receive them? If we go to God with His glory uppermost in our minds I can’t help but think that that’s a prayer that pleases Him and maybe one He can honor safely.

VK: And that is another one of those knee-buckling thoughts. God is a wise father and a wise father wants his children to grow and develop even during stressful times. God can and does bring blessing out of adversity as we mentioned in our first lesson in this series. But one of the best ways to let God know that His blessing is safe with us is to tell him right up front that we know that all good gifts come from Him and that He will get the glory for any blessing He brings.

RD: Yes. There used to be a book in circulation with the title “God you take the credit, I’ll take the commissions.” God’s glory is tied to His own perfect character and through Jesus God has included us in His kingdom – which will be a glorious kingdom because it’s His. So in the midst of uncertain times the one thing we can be certain of is that God will hear the prayers of His people that show as much concern for His glory as they do for the people’s needs. It’s not that God doesn’t love us. He does, so much so that He sent His only Son to die for us. But God doesn’t just want us to experience His gifts to us at a superficial level. He wants the absolute best for us and that means having a closer and deeper relationship with Him. And one way we can achieve that relationship is by sharing God’s concern for God’s glory. It’s just like when human children are proud of an earthly parent for something the parent did. Demonstrating that we are aware of and concerned for God’s glory brings us closer to God during difficult times.

VK: That is a power-packed thought. Sometimes we might question why God would be inclined to listen to us at all. As David said in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” But the clear answer that should inspire our prayers is that God is mindful of Christians because He has sovereignly chosen to link His immutable glory to His care for us and His deliverance to us in our hour of need. Provided we are sincere in our expressions that God receive the glory that He is due, we can confidently ask Him for whatever we need. Just as it says in Matthew 6:33 if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness the things that we need will be provided to us. In large part God gives us blessings in order that we might be able to celebrate His greatness and glory even more. Sounds like a great time for a prayer. Today, let’s again pray for all those who are on the front lines of this battle with a victory over the virus prayer. And let’s do so keeping in mind that we will give God all the glory for the victory when He brings it to us.

---- PRAYER FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND FIRST RESPONDERS

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Opening Bible Quotes from the New International Version and others)

Psalm 79, verse 9, New International Version

Isaiah, Chapter 42, verse 8, New Living Translation

Exodus, Chapter 15, verse 6, God’s Word Translation

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/biblical-texts-to-show-gods-zeal-for-his-own-glory

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God,-Glory-Of#thematic_title_19033